Dennis offers Jordan humble pie as McLaren come out fighting

Lewis Hamilton's McLaren team demonstrated they are ready to fight for the world title - despite a desperate winter of testing - after an astonishing intervention on live television on Saturday by his former boss.

Hamilton had silenced the critics, including BBC Formula One pundit Eddie Jordan, by qualifying his new McLaren car in second spot for Sunday morning's season-opening Australian Grand Prix in Melbourne.

Although he was still almost four-fifths of a second adrift as Red Bull's Sebastian Vettel launched his title defence in staggering fashion, it represented a remarkable turnaround for a team who had been written off following a wretched pre-season.

Pole Star: Sebastien Vettel lets Lewis Hamilton know who's the No 1

Former team principal Ron Dennis, still a key part of the McLaren group, made the point by interrupting Jordan's interview with Hamilton's team-mate, Jenson Button, during the post-qualifying analysis.

Button, fourth fastest, said: 'Ron handed Eddie a plate and said: "Here is your humble pie." Eddie was surprised but took it in good heart. So he should.'

The British duo's title hopes looked slim at best when the Woking-based McLaren outfit finally scrapped the complex exhaust system that had been dogged by reliability problems in winter testing.

The team's back-to-basics approach, which they reckoned would boost performance by a second a lap, paid off as they unexpectedly led the challenge to the dominant Red Bulls in qualifying at Albert Park.

Hamilton is convinced he can fight to regain the title he won in 2008 whatever the outcome of this morning's first round in a 19-race season.

Humble pie: Ron Dennis hit back at Eddie Jordan in comical fashion

Hamilton said: 'I couldn't have dreamed of this. It's still going to be difficult as the gap to Seb is not normal. But at least I'm in the fight.

'It was a brave decision for us to pull back from what we had been developing, but the guys back in the factory have done a fantastic job.'

Vettel's pole lap of 1min 23.529sec, the fastest ever on the Albert Park track, on the new Pirelli rubber would have been about three-fifths of a second quicker had he used his KERS energy boost system.

The German's third-placed Red Bull team-mate, Mark Webber, was mystified by his huge gap to Vettel, who claimed his 16th career pole.

The thinking caps were also on at Ferrari and Mercedes after their leading lights failed to shine. Fernando Alonso was fifth fastest for Ferrari, almost 1.5sec off the pace, while seven-time champion Michael Schumacher bombed out in the second qualifying session, having predicted he could challenge for wins.